Sixty miles west of Boston, Massachusetts there is the small New England town of Sturbridge. Located at the junction of I-90 (The Mass Pike), and I-84 it has become known as the "Crossroads of New England". The town was first settled over 300 years ago, and like other small New England towns it has grown just enough over the years to be in a difficult place today. How do we embrace the future without forgetting how we got to our present? How do we attract the right kind of growth, and maintain who we are? And, what about our culture out here in Central Massachusetts?

These pages will cause one to think about how to protect what we have, our future direction, and how to move on in the very best way.

Those thoughts, and other ramblings, will hopefully inspire more thought, conversation, action, and occasionally a smile...

...seems to be working so far

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

One Great Selling Point

It seems that every drug dealer on the east coast knows where Sturbridge is. That's where you get on the MassPike at the end of I-84, and go on to your next New England destination. So many come to town, we have set up a welcoming committee that has been greeting a fair number for many years. The good deal of news, about Sturbridge, on the Internet is about drug trafficking, and arrests made in our town by local, and state police.

Little else is ever said, with the exception of the news from Old Sturbridge Village, or some new calamity from Town Hall. Most of the news from Sturbridge is about those that treat I-84 like the old Santa Fe Trail on the way to the Promised Land of a narcotics deal. These news stories are consistent.

The great news is our law enforcement folks are sharp enough to catch a percentage of these travelers, and hand them over to the courts. The bad news is we are becoming known more for our ease of navigation to all New England points for drug dealers than we for families on vacation, and businesses looking for a new location.

It would be great to see some other news about Sturbridge other than the weekly narcotics bust. Then again, it does show we are very good at one thing: law enforcement, and if we can't have it all, vigilant law enforcement is a great thing to have.

That fact, alone, is one terrific selling point for our town.

Just add it to the list, and eventually it may catch some developers eye.

From the Worcester Telegram August 27, 2013

NY man stopped on I-84 in Sturbridge is charged with drug trafficking

By Brian Lee, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

STURBRIDGE — A 40-year-old New York man, who was arrested on Interstate 84 and charged with trafficking in more than 455 grams of oxycodone, was ordered held on $15,000 bail.

Eduardo Pantoja of Yonkers, N.Y., pleaded not guilty in Dudley District Court to trafficking in heroin/morphine/opium. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Oct. 29.

State police Sgt. James A. Bazinotti of the Sturbridge barracks found a bag containing 3,165 oxycodone pills under the passenger seat of the minivan Mr. Pantoja was driving, the police report said.

The 30-milligram pills were in 17 bags, each listing a number that was possibly the quantity in each bag, and some names, state police said.

Mr. Pantoja was driving east on I-84 when the sergeant noticed the van had temporary plates from West Virginia. The plates' lettering was too small to read, the report said.

When the sergeant pulled over the driver and approached the vehicle, he smelled air freshener, police said.

Mr. Pantoja told police he had borrowed his cousin's minivan in Manhattan. He said he was driving to meet a married woman named Elizabeth in Boston. He said he was meeting her on a street, and email was his only means of contact, state police said.

When the sergeant told Mr. Pantoja it would help if his story could be verified, Mr. Pantoja asked for a lawyer, the report said.